[Spoilers] Woden wonders if he remembers how to play Civ 6

[Woden]

I seem to remember 7 but it is ages ago that I thought about this

Thanks, that sounds familar. I will have to make sure to defog at least 7 tiles (may push to 10 just in case) around my capital to look for camps.

[Woden]

Although it might seem the right move with all this food to go warrior->settler for a quick 2nd city, it is really hard (unless extremely lucking finding camps) to get the boost to BW in time. I seem to be in a better place on T60 when going scout->warrior->settler. I could switch off of BW and pick-up someting like Animal Husbandry while getting the 3 barb kills not to waste science, but even when doing that, it seems the better play is the scout->warrior->settler. You can meet 3 city states for PP boost, you find more civilizations, have more map information. My test games with warrior->settler, it was hard to get through PP before the era change and get a golden age. Teh scout->warrior->settler games seem to get me both more often. Although in teh past I thought socut first is not a good play, it seems it works better with a iron working beeline.

[Woden]

Turn 1
Settled in place, moved warrior to defog coastline and then to where he stands....
   

Started Mining. Everybody but greenline settled this turn. Started working the 4-food rice to grow in 4 turns. Warrior will head south-southwest to a radius of 7 tiles and then swing east looking for a barb camp. Scout will head north to about 7 tiles and swing east southeast looking for a good second city location. 

I am thinking my initial build order will be scout->warrior->settler->builder->encampment/settler->setller/encampment with the settler/encampment depending on if I get 3 barbs killed and BW complete. Encampment will have priority over 2nd settler to start generating GG points. I am thinking best location so far is the grassland coastal tile east of city center. It will provide defense in case of any sea invasion and doesn't impact a potential food triangle with the wheat if it gets to late game.

[Woden]

Turn 2
Moved my warrior onto the hill...
   

Might be a nice spot for 2nd city if I can find fresh water with lots of food but, then again, not much production. Looks like pinicator also chose to move and has not settled his capital yet.

[Woden]

Turn 3
Open the save to find a barb scout in view of my warrior...
   

This is the best possible opening. I could have tried to chase him away but I want him to see my city and become activated, then go home and bring his friends for an easy 3 kill and the boost to BW. I move to the tea and defog a little more. If Kaiser is right on the 7 tile (and I think he is), the barb camp should be on the next set of fogged tiles and I will see it when I move onto the grassland hill next turn. Plan is to hit the spear once or twice, depending on the scout and then fortify until fully healed or warriors start spawning. Then retreat towards my city to meet up with the warrior I build after the scout. Should easily get 3 kills. Hopefully there are not horses around, then I might lose my warrior while retreating if chased by more than 1.

[Woden]

Turn 4
Early morning turn today, lets hope it can get around again today! Open the save and see the barb scout is now activated. Go home little buddy and find some friends. I move my warrior west...
   

Find a barb camp, 7 tiles from my capital. Should take a few turns for the scout to get back here. I will hit the spearman next turn since I get the +5 CS aganist full health units and fortify and heal while waiting for the camp to spawn more units. Lets hope there aren't horses on any of those grassland tiles.

[Woden]

Turn 5
Capital grew to size 2. Scout now due in 2 turns. Based on the scores, TAD also is grew a pop...
   

Hit barb camp for 30 dmg, taking 33 dmg. Will fortify and heal next turn. Spearman shouldn't counter attack until a warrior spawns. Then, I will let them both attack once for experience and then retreat and draw the warrior and any of his new friends to my capital. Should easily get the boost for BW.

[Woden]

Turn 6
All I did this turn was fortify my warrior to heal and prepare for the camp to activate.

Turn 7
Scout completes and I start a warrior. Scout heads north. Barb camp generates a warrior...
   

Since it is a warrior, no horse hidden around the camp. It is starting to look like I am on the west coast of the landmass but still need more scouting information to confirm. Only TAD and I are at 2 pop, evertybidy else must be working a production heavy tile.

[Woden]

Turn 8
As expected, my warrior was hit by both the spearman and warrior, left with a little less than half health. The pathfinder for my scout told me he could get passed the trees by moving east and I figured it would be good to see if there is a potential city site in that direction...
   

May be something up here by the river. I retreated my warrior to the east bewteen the tea and sheep. Next turn, I will go on the hill NE and maybe let the barb warrior hit me again. Should be enough for a promotion. There should another unit or 2 out of the camp once the warrior moves away. If they all come to my capital, will be enough for the BW boost. If not, might have to track down the scout for the 3rd kill. 

I think I have an outline of my next 20 or so turns. To start, scout heads north-northeast for a bit, maybe until he finds tundra or a city state, and the will cut southeast-south. This should give me a decent understanding of my location? Once my second warrior is completed, I will go into a settler. My 2 warriors will kill any barbs that have come to my capital and then the healthest one will go take the camp. The one that stays near the capital will heal and then guard the settler as I find a second city location. Once the other warrioir takes out the barb camp, I think he will head south-soutwest to see if I am the western most civ or is there someone to my southwest. 

For my second city, most of the time I would want something close to my capital to share tiles, builders, and it would be easier to defend. However, here I think my seocnd city needs to go out a bit and be in whatever direction I think has the best chance of having a neighbor. If I am on the western most coast, my capital will not be a good place to build units as they might have a long march to the front but if I find a good second city location, I can cut down that distance and use my capital as a settler pump.  As of now, I am thinking east but it might be south-southwest if my warrior finds evidence of a potential player down there. 

For a little longer term plan, around T60 I should have 3 or 4 immortals and just finish PP and get into Oligarchy. This will be a good time to capture any city states while I wait for a General and more units. Once I get around 8 immortals, I will march to whoever is closest (hoping I find somebody).

[Woden]

Here is what I think of my competition, from least threatening to most:

Greenline-Wilhelmina. I don’t really know much about greenline and or his PBEM23 game, although I don’t think he had a very good showing and looks to have giving up on reporting or really defending.  My ranking here is more of the choice of leader. Wilhelmina is a late game civ with a builder tendency. With a few of the other players in this game, I don’t think the late game civs will do very well but we will see. I hope he is my neighbor and I can do a quick attach and discourage him for an easy conquest.

     Pindicator/Whosit-Suleiman. Pindicator is an okay player but tends to lack focus and tries to do too much. Whosit seems to be a builder player who likes to chase wonders and another non-focused player. Pindicator can be harder to conquer than other players and has a decent grasp on the game but tends to try and do too much. The Janissary is a decent musketman replacement that could cause issues later in the game. The bonus to siege units and benefits to loyalty for conquering a city is a good toolkit. If he can survive to gunpowder, he will become dangerous. Another player I hope is my neighbor so I can take him out before his power spike.

    Yaris-Victoria. Yaris is a veteran civ player but has only player in PBEM1, so not sure how good his showing will be, but he did pick a good leader. The +2 to production on strategic resources is good and better if he can get the pantheon that adds to it. He gets more iron and coal and can get a very good economy going if he is on the coast. He will be a bit of a wild card, lots of unknowns, but I think I can handle him if he is my closet neighbor.

    TheArchduke-Julius Caesar. This pick with this player will be troublesome. I have a lot of history playing against TAD and have a good understanding of him as a player. He tends to mix it up a lot and try different things in his game. Given that he has played more of a builder’s game in PBEM23 and given his pick, I expect him to go for a quick conquest in this game, which is very similar to me. However, I think his toolkit is a little more suited to quick conquest than mine. The extra gold and full experience from barbs gives him a leg up. He can get out a few warriors and farm barb camps for experience and a bunch of gold, which he can use to buy settlers and builders for quick expansions. If he beelines iron working, his legions can quickly eat through his neighbor, he can pillage everything, and then use the legions to repair all the tiles. The Bath will help with housing and happiness in his cities, letting him continue with his conquests. I hope TAD is not my neighbor. If he is, I am going to push for a friendship. We both have a classical age power spike and can cause ethe other one troubles if we go to war. It would be better to get peace so we can focus on the others for conquest. This could be possible, TAD and I have mutual respect for each other and tend to ussually have a decent working relationship in these games and stay out of each others way unless the other is standing in that way. 

How I think this game is going to go is that both TAD and I will take out our closet neighbor in an early rush, then be in a mad rush to conquer the 3rd remaining player. Then, it will be a rush to better tech, ending in a massive war for dominance in a later age. Maybe even see nukes again? In this scenario, TAD might have the edge because of all the free gold he will get for taking cities. Gold is production and he may be able to develop quicker with it. Regardless, if the cards fall right, this could be an epic game!